Wednesday, April 14, 2021

9:00 am

Central Time: Introduction & Overview

Brian D. Israel, Esq. , Program Co-Chair
Arnold & Porter / Washington, DC

Allan Kanner, Esq. , Program Co-Chair
Kanner & Whiteley / New Orleans, LA

9:15 am

NRDA and Other Regulations as Simply a Starting Point: The Advantages of Focusing on Providing Ecosystem Services as the "Currency" for Innovative Settlements

Restoration as only one remedy with innovative projects and "NRDA banking" being increasingly considered; emerging new drivers that address factors like climate change and Environmental Justice

Mark S. Laska, Ph.D. , CEO and President
Great Ecology / New York, NY

9:45 am

Break

10:00 am

Ecological Restoration in the Gulf Coast: What we Learned on Technical, Legal, and Programmatic Levels

From Deepwater Horizon and other cases, restoration planners in the Gulf coast have acquired unparalleled experience and expertise in planning ecological restoration projects: How can we apply those lessons to driven by other events in other locations?

Irving Mendelssohn, Ph.D. , Emeritus Professor, Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences
Louisiana State University / Baton Rouge, LA

Samuel W. (Billy) Plauche, IV, Esq.
Plauche & Carr / Seattle, WA

Christopher Doley , Chief, Restoration Center
NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service / Silver Spring, MD

11:00 am

Restoration Banking as an Idea Whose Time has Come

Legal, economic, and technical issues associated with restoration banking; innovative financing tools such as outcome/performance-based contracting and bonding to move restoration more quickly

Chip Kline , Executive Assistant to the Governor for Coastal Activities
Office of the Governor / Baton Rouge, LA

Megan K. Terrell, Esq.
Plauche & Carr / Baton Rouge, LA

12:00 pm

Lunch Break

1:15 pm

Special Address: Establishing Restoration Priorities After Major Events

The benefits of allowing science to drive priority setting processes and tips for minimizing political conflicts

The Hon. Garret Graves , (R) Louisiana
U.S. House of Representatives / Washington, DC

1:45 pm

Complex Project Management Case Studies from Around the Country

Managing a large volume of smaller projects: Lessons from New Jersey's large volume of industrial sites

John Sacco , Assistant Director
New Jersey Division of Parks & Forestry / Trenton, NJ

Allison Brouk, Esq.
Kanner and Whiteley / New Orleans, LA

Managing multiple projects and stakeholders toward a comprehensive restoration strategy: The Yakima Basin Integrated Plan

Peter H. Dykstra, Esq.
Plauche & Carr / Seattle, WA

3:00 pm

Break

3:15 pm

Special Address: The Emerging Importance of Environmental Justice (EJ) Considerations

Emerging federal requirements and state law trends; how choice of project affects EJ goals; establishing protocols for considering EJ impacts in proposing projects; the advantages of requiring local buy-in to ensure that EJ goals are met

Shawn M. LaTourette, Esq. , Acting Commissioner
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection / Trenton, NJ

3:45 pm

Selection of Remedies Moving Forward: How Decisions for Restorations are Being Made and How Decision Making can be Improved

Innovative approaches to address ecological restoration while also considering climate change, environmental justice and other challenges and priorities: Looking forward, how will ecological restoration change over time?

Joshua Lipton, PhD. , Principal
Lipton Consulting / Boulder, CO

Tod Delaney, Ph.D., PE , President
First Environment / Butler, NJ

Kyle Graham , Senior Program Manager
Ecosystem Investment Partners / Erie, CO

5:30 pm

Evaluations and Adjourn

Faculty Bios

Brian D. Israel, Program Co-Chair, is a Partner at Arnold & Porter and chair of the firm's Environmental Practice Group. He served as lead counsel to BP in relation to the Deepwater Horizon NRD claim and as one of the trial attorneys at the Deepwater Horizon Clean Water Act penalty trial.

Allan Kanner, Program Co-Chair, currently represents the State of New Jersey against ExxonMobil and represented the State of Louisiana in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill litigation.

The Hon. Garret Graves, (R) Louisiana, Special Address, represents Louisiana's Sixth Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. He has been very active in remediation efforts after Deepwater Horizon.

Allison Brouk, Kanner and Whiteley, was part of the litigation team that represented the State of Louisiana in its claim related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. She also works on natural resource damage cases for the State of New Jersey.

Tod Delaney, Ph.D., PE, is the President of First Environment. For First Environment's litigation practice, he serves as an expert witness for natural resource damages cases and has testified in more than 30 litigations involving the management, disposal, and handling of chemicals in the context of CERCLA, RCRA, state-law cleanup statutes, and toxic tort lawsuits.

Christopher Doley is Chief, Restoration Center for NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service. Following the Deepwater Horizon spill, he led state and federal partners through "contentious negotiations with BP" regarding the early restoration projects and encouraged his team and the affected parties to "think bigger and more creatively to come up with innovative options that will most directly benefit the injured natural resources.

Peter H. Dykstra is a partner at Plauche & Carr where he counsels public and private clients on water rights, land conservation transactions and strategies, ecosystem service markets, and complex natural resource projects. In addition to his law practice, Peter helps clients with issues before Congress, the Washington State Legislature, and federal, state and tribal government agencies, working to pass legislation, secure funding for conservation, restoration, and infrastructure projects, and develop collaborative public/private partnerships for large-scale, innovative solutions to natural resource challenges.

Kyle Graham is a Senior Program Manager at Ecosystem Investment Partners. He previously served as Executive Director for Louisiana's Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, implementing large scale coastal restoration projects.

Chip Kline is Executive Assistant to the Governor for Coastal Activities in the Office of the Governor. He also is Chairman of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority Board. Between the two positions, he is responsible for coordinating and focusing the functions of all state agencies as they relate to integrated coastal protection.

Mark S. Laska, Ph.D., is CEO and President of Great Ecology. technical specialization includes habitat restoration, ecological planning and design, and he is a leading Natural Resource Damage (NRD) practitioner. He is highly experienced in taking projects of all scales and sizes from the conceptual stage through post- construction monitoring.

Shawn M. LaTourette is Acting Commissioner for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection where he is responsible for formulating statewide environmental policy while directing programs that protect public health and ensure the quality of New Jersey's air, land, water, and natural and historic resources. He previously served as Chief of Staff and then Deputy Commissioner.

Joshua Lipton, Ph.D ., formerly President and CEO of Stratus Consulting, has spent much of his career working in the field of natural resource damage assessment and restoration (NRDAR). He has worked on over 100 natural resource damage assessments, having served as a lead scientist and technical coordinator at many of the prominent NRDA investigations that have been undertaken by federal, state, and Tribal trustees.

Irving A. Mendelssohn, Ph .D., holds the position of Professor Emeritus in the Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences, Louisiana State University. He is a Fellow of the Society of Wetland Scientists and holds an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Aarhus, Denmark, where he conducted collaborative research. Dr. Mendelssohn's research emphasizes the restoration and sustainability of coastal wetlands, including the use of hydraulically dredged sediment-slurries for coastal marsh restoration and the response and mitigation of wetlands to oil spills.

Samuel W. (Billy) Plauche, IV, Plauche & Carr, focuses on environmental, natural resources, and coastal law. Billy represents both public and private sector clients, including the State of Louisiana with regard regulatory issues associated with the State's coastal restoration program. As part of his representation of the State of Louisiana, he served as Chair of the Deepwater Horizon Trustee Council from 2015-2016.

John Sacco is the Assistant Director of New Jersey Division of Parks & Forestry. In that position, he serves as the State Forester and supervises the Office of Natural Resource Restoration (ONRR). He previously served as the Administrator of the Office of Natural Resource Restoration.

Megan K. Terrell is a partner at Plauche & Carr. She previously served as Deputy Director of the Louisiana Governor's Office of Coastal Activities. Prior to joining the Governor's Office, she was the Deputy Director of the Civil Division and Chief of the Environmental Section of the Louisiana Department of Justice, where she served as lead in-house counsel for the Deepwater Horizon response, litigation, and restoration.

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